The Communicant's Companion (continued)
For the second thing proposed, let us mention some particulars, wherein we ought, in a special manner, to approve ourselves well after this solemnity, that, "as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, we may so walk in him."
After we have been admitted into communion with God, and have renewed our covenants with him at his table, it behoves us to be careful, in these six things:—
1. We must see to it, that we be sincerely devout and pious. It is not enough that we live soberly and righteously, but we must live godly, in this present world, and our sacramental engagements should stir us up to abound therein more and more. After an interview with our friends, by which mutual acquaintance is improved, and mutual affections confirmed, we are more constant and endearing in our correspondence with each other; so we should be with God after this ordinance, more frequent in holy ejaculations, and breathings of soul towards God, intermixed even with common business and conversation; more abundant in reading, meditation, and solemn prayer; more diligent in our attendance on public ordinances, more fixed and enlarged in closet devotions, and more lively and affectionate in our family worship. Those religious exercises wherein we have formerly been remiss and careless, easily persuaded to put them by, or put them off, we should now be more constant to, and more careful in, more close in our application to them, and more serious in our performance of them.
If we have indeed found that it is good for us to draw near to God, we will endeavor to keep near him, so near him, as upon every occasion to speak to him, and to hear from him. If this sacrament has been our delight, the word will be our delight, and we will daily converse with it; prayer will be our